Black Jacobins Book Review

PBS’s program: Egalite For All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution provided an extremely education perspective on the savage concept of slavery in Haiti at the hands of the French. However, one man named had the courage to lead a revolution against this brutality. Leading the Haitian Revolution, Louverture helped to make Saint-Domingue the first free colony absent of the ranking of slaves due to the color of one’s skin.

Napoleon restored slavery to the French caribbean islands, and even executed Toussaint Louverture, a man who led a successful slave rebellion against Napoleon in Haiti.

That’s why the French Revolution, along with Haiti, exhibited new and unconventional ideas[Kaiser Encyclopedia]. The ideas of “liberty, equality, and fraternity”[Chapter 10, Brittanica] were supposedly though valid for all peoples, but that was considered troublesome for those who wished to control the social hierarchy. King Louis XVI was unable to adequately reform the french fiscal system, which laid the foundation for the revolution[Voyages 495-496]. When he showed reluctance to rule as a constitutional monarch, he was beheaded by french revolutionaries. Later, the National Assembly had to force their ruler to sign the Assembly’s constitution. In Haiti, the prosperity of the colony was based upon slavery. This was an issue because the majority of the population were slaves, and had no say in the government. Both the Haitians and the French had to fight for what they wanted and were strongly opposed. The political changes taking place in France at the time of the French Revolution brought change for the

a. According to Jacob Crawfurd of crawfurd.dk With the French arrival a revolution started once again and when it was finally over, an army of black slaves had their victory against the army of Napoleon. On January 1st 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, an African-born ex-slave could declare Haiti independent. It was the first black republic in the world and the first country in the Western hemisphere to abolish slavery completely

However, when Napoleon Bonaparte attempted to reinstate slavery at the beginning of the 19th century, there was much objection specifically by Toussaint (de Breda) Louverture. Toussaint created a new constitution for Saint-Dominque without slavery and placed administrators in charge over the islands government, commerce, and legislation (Dubois/Garrigus,169). Napoleaon sent troops to Saint-Dominque, arrested Toussaint and deported him to France; however, this only furthered intensified the fighting. After much strife, Napoleon eventually gave up and the Haitian Declaration of Independence was created on January 1, 1804 and later a constitution in 1805 (Dubois/Garrigus,188).

As the slaves in Saint Domingue started revolts, a Napoleon emerged, taking charge over a broken people. With revolutions blooming in Europe and North America, many people in the Latin America wanted freedom and started their own revolutions. One of the first revolutions in Latin America took place in Saint Domingue, today known as Haiti. A major leader of the Haitian revolt against France was Toussaint L’ouverture. He helped the fight for freedom of his people and their land. Former slave that he was, made him well liked among most of the population and his disposition only helped his popularity as Saint Domingue progressed towards becoming a free country. Toussaint Louverture is an important figure in Haitian history for being a liberator of slaves, a ruler of Saint Domingue, and a successful military commander.

Although the Haitian Revolution inspired many revolts made from African Americans, African American themselves were not significantly responsible for slavery’s end. However, different regions had different circumstances that caused African Americans to either have an abundance amount of influence to slavery’s end or little to no influence. The reason being is due to the level of resistance that varied depending on the location of the slaves. Many of the slaves had to depend on the number of supporters that they had to work with because without enough support, the revolts would not go well, which then would not lead to the end of slavery. “Rebellion began at the initial point of capture within Africa itself, continuing down to the barracoons, and it often erupted into mutiny aboard the slavers” (Gomez 110). This quote signifies that rebellion has always been there through each suffering; it was just never prominent enough at the moment because African Americans could handle it at the time since the torments just began. Yet, as time goes by, their ability to endure decreases having to deal with the tortures and sufferings weekly if not daily. Slavery’s end sparked when the debate over the future of slavery began. The dispute then led to secession in which it brought about a war in which the Northern and Western states and territories fought to preserve the Union, while the South fought to establish Southern independence as a new confederation of states under its own

Toussaint realized that although the fight started with the French they were the best they had so he rejoined the French. France and the slaves took out the Spanish and the English. Other countries/ colonies didn’t want any French men to come because they would the tell the story of how black slaves won a war against their masters. When Napoleon takes over some see him as a beacon of hope to reinstate slavery; but Toussaint doesn’t seem like the idea so he wrote his own laws where slaver is not allowed. It was the first to discriminate based on the color of their skin, he put himself as a dictator. This sent Napoleon on edge so much so that he sends men to take the people of St. Domngiue, the natives fight for three months until Toussaint was captured and charged with treason. Napoleon reinstates slavery and the people of St. Domnguie go back to war. Jean-Jacques Dessalines tactic worked and ended the war once again. Some countries in modern and leaders might still oppose Haiti because they were successful in their past. With the people of that country maybe being not physically enslaved but in mentally by their own

1801 - Toussaint Louverture (a former slave) becomes the self- proclaimed leader of Haiti and ends slavery

On 21 Aug 1791, the enslaved acted first and began rebelling against the planters. By 1792, they had control over one third of the island. Before all of the fighting ended, 100,000 of the 500,000 blacks and 24,000 of the 40,000 whites had been killed. Even with all of the deaths, the former slaves still managed to hold off both the French and British forces that had arrived to try and conquer the colony. They all withdrew their forces in 1798 after they received many defeats from L’Ouverture and his forces. After a while, the Haitian Revolution lasted longer than the French Revolution. “Napoleon Bonaparte, the new ruler of France, sent his brother-in-law, General Charles Leclerc and 43,000 troops to capture L’Ouverture and restore French rule and slavery” (). With much help from the white colonists and mulatto forces, the French outmatched, outmaneuvered, and eventually wore down the black army. L’Ouverture eventually saw that he no longer had an advantage over the French and surrendered to Leclerc on 5 May 1802. It was said that the French had told L’Ouverture that he would be allowed to retire quietly. One month later, the French captured him and transported him to France where he ended up dying of “neglect from being left in a dungeon of Fort de Joux in the Jura Mountains on 7 Apr 1803”

In the late eighteenth century, Haiti was in a state of turmoil among the African slaves and French plantation masters, and as the conflict rose, a black man known as Toussaint Louverture rose to the occasion to free his people from the shackles of slavery. A former slave once referenced to as nothing more than a simple black man was deemed by many as “one of the black chiefs of Hayti’ after his death and won international renown. Toussaint Louverture, born a slave on the islands of Saint Domingo, turned a band of runaway slaves with nothing more than the clothes on their back into a fighting force that outsmarted Napoleon Bonaparte in the first and only successful slave revolt. As Louverture became a growing figure of the movement to abolish slavery in Haiti, both the Americas and Europe recognized him as the most influential ‘hero’ to inspire the possibility of freedom from slavery could one day be achieved. Louverture’s stand against slavery in 1801 left a lasting impact in Haiti by delivering the country to emancipation with Louverture’s and Dessalines’ constitution

Overall, the ideas of the French Revolution had a greatly positive effect on the lives of the free blacks in Haiti, as leaders such as Toussaint Louverture, and Jean Jacques Dessalines were able to seize power during the Haitian Revolution due to their scholarly expertise. Prior to both the French and Haitian Revolutions, free black men in Haiti could not be a part of the government or have a respectable position in the army. As soon as the French Revolution began, the free black men of Haiti were quickly inspired by the revolution's principles of equality and liberty, as they wanted equality and liberty for all Haitians. This shows that the French Revolution's influence on Haiti had a beneficial political, economical, and social effect on

I feel as though, the key figure, Toussaint L’ouverture, was a good person to play the prominent role he played in the Haitian Revolution because of how determined he was. He made sure that no matter what he had to sacrifice, the Haitian slaves were no longer going to have to be enslaved. I believe that he wanted to make the Haitian slaves free because he himself used to be a slave. Also I think the key figure, Jean-Jacques Dessalines was important because of how supportive he was towards the actions of L’ouverture. He ensured that whatever L’ouverture had planned was going to get done with the help of himself. So because of how supportive and prominent he was to the Haitian Revolution, I believe that’s why he declared himself emperor of Haiti.

Two centuries ago, a glittering Caribbean island helped finance the revolution. Haiti was owned by France, and it was their wealthiest colony because the plantation were worked by African slaves. At one point the slaves did not wanted to work the plantation anymore, so they set fire on the plantation they worked in and demanded their freedom. They even offered to fight for their right to freedom. On January 1, in 1804, Dessalines who was one of the generals and a former slave declared the creation of the republic Haiti. While all of the Haitians struggles were taking place in 1803. The same year the United States and France agreed on the Louisiana Purchase. France was fighting against England and other European power in the Napoleonic war because Napoleon wanted to spread the French empire in Haiti, including Louisiana, and other territories in North America. However, the plan did not go

Toussaint Louverture organized an army of twenty thousand that controlled most of Saint-Domingue and spread a constitution that granted equality and citizenship to all of its residents. However, he did not want to declare independence from France because he did not want to aggravate Napoleon Bonaparte into attacking the island, which he ended up doing later. After his death following his arrest, the black generals that succeeded Toussaint defeated the French troops that survived yellow fever and had driven them out of the colony. In late 1803, they declared independence, the establishment of Haiti soon followed. Although they had abolished French rule, French is the main language spoken in Haiti today. The victory of the Haitian revolution signifies the first and only successful slave revolt in modern